Month: December 2017

It is time for the final Irrational of 2017, my Person of the Year. Previous winners of this Accolade have been pretty easy to select, but 2017 was a little harder – because let’s be honest, when everyone is obsessed with MiFID II it’s going to be hard to stand out isn’t it? Had someone managed to extract FX from this ridiculous regulation (in FX terms I should stress, because in the spirit of the season I don’t give two stuffs about equities or fixed income) then they would have been a standout winner.

A story by Bloomberg News has prompted some head-scratching amongst FX dealers after the service reported a flash crash in EUR/USD on Christmas Day, December 25.
The report says that at around 7.30am New York time on the 25th, EUR/USD plunged from 1.1860 to 1.1550 before rebounding to 1.1650 and then recovering all the way back to 1.1850 just a couple of hours later.
The Bloomberg report states, “The sudden plunge could’ve been sparked by computer-driven trading,” however dealers spoken to by Profit & Loss say their records and systems are showing nothing.

Bloomberg has signed a statement of commitment to the FX Global Code, pledging it will continue to support fair and robust FX markets worldwide.
The firm says it has long supported the creation and implementation of the Code, which was developed by a public/private body of central banks and diverse industry participants from multiple jurisdictions as a set of voluntary best practices and is aimed at all market participants engaged in the wholesale FX market.
“We endorse the FX Global Code and are committed to the highest levels of integrity and market practice,” says Tod Van Name, Bloomberg’s global head of FX electronic trading.

Integral Development Corp has received approval from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to operate a multilateral trading facility.
The firm says the MTF, the technology for which is based upon its Open Currency Exchange (OCX) platform, includes all the features and services necessary for clients to conduct MiFID II compliant trading.
It adds the MTF will provide enhanced surveillance practices, monitoring procedures, and execution analysis for transparent and compliant trading of FX forwards, swaps, and NDFs.
Integral says it will deliver its entire platform with services necessary to meet MiFID II requirements including assistance with pre-trade and post-trade transparency, surveillance, TCA, reporting, and record keeping.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has announced a delay gto the implementation of a key element of the impending MiFID II regulation, which is due to go into effect on January 3, 2018.
The Authority says the delay is, “To support the smooth implementation of Legal Entity Identifiers (LEI) requirements under the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR).”
MiFIR obliges EU investment firms to identify their clients that are legal persons with LEIs for the purpose of MiFID II transaction reporting.

The Wholesale Markets Brokers’ Association has announced that with immediate effect it will change its name to the European Venues and Intermediaries Association.
The Association says the new title reflects changes to the role of inter-dealer brokers following the implementation of Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) II which comes into effect on 3 January 2018.The role of the newly-re-branded EVIA will be, it says, to strive to ensure fair and effective markets across its membership through the common rulebook of MiFID II.

With a doff of the hat and the compliments of the season to those of you still chained to your desk this deep in December (and thus desperate enough for something to fill the day that you will read this), we come to the penultimate Irrational – and again, it’s quite competitive.
The Statement of the Year could be renamed the “Hmmm Award” because it is intended to highlight those things that people said that made your jaw drop and book an appointment at the Otolaryngologis.

FlexTrade has announced the hire of Manuela Bauer as the firm’s new director, multi-asset sales.
The firm says Bauer will be responsible for further strengthening its capabilities in multi asset class sales including growing FlexTrade’s recently launched fixed income EMS in Europe.
Based in London, she reports to Andy Mahoney, head of sales for EMEA, and joins from MTS, the London Stock Exchange Group’s e-fixed income trading platform. At MTS Bauer was responsible for buy side sales in Germany and the Nordics.

The Global Foreign Exchange Committee (GFXC) has issued a paper on the results of a survey it conducted with the intention of measuring the baseline level of awareness and adoption of the FX Global Code by market participants.
The survey was undertaken at the end of September 2017 and sent to more than 500 FX market participants globally, including firms not involved in the creation of the Code. The survey was conducted with the objective of gathering a diverse set of views from firms representing different jurisdictions, sectors, sizes and levels of activity in the FX market.

The Global Foreign Exchange Committee (GFXC) has published an update to the FX Global Code, one that incorporates revised guidance on trading in the last look window, known as Principle 17.
The revised Principle 17 states that market participants should not undertake trading activity that utilises information from the client’s trade request during the last look window. It also describes the conditions under which certain trading arrangements (sometimes referred to as ‘cover and deal’) may be distinguished from this guidance.